


When I Was a Bachelor

by but love is blind (lykxxn)



Category: Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Grief/Mourning, this ended up being so much more depressing than I intended it to be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-25 10:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3807517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lykxxn/pseuds/but%20love%20is%20blind
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He misses her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When I Was a Bachelor

He misses her. He misses the warmth on the other side of the bed. He misses her touch and her love. He misses her soft, gentle lips and the way she smiles as if she has no worry in all the world. 

He misses feeling her breath on his neck, hot and cold all at the same time. He misses the way their hands meet instinctively whenever they walk through the streets of Venice. He misses her kiss; both gentle and ferocious at the same time. He misses her laugh and how she could make him grin just with one look. He misses the constant, quiet “I love you”s. He misses the way she would dance with him in front of the fire late at night. 

He misses Shabbat together. He misses hearing her melodic voice murmuring the prayers, her face lit up by the candles. He misses her dark, warm eyes, so full of love and happiness despite the prejudice she suffered. 

Several times a night he wakes, reaching one arm across the bed, his heart aching in his longing when he realises that the other side is cold. He lays awake until his exhaustion forces him to sleep, and he repeats the process again, even when the longing is only a dull ache, and Jessica is too old to wake during the night. He lights her candle even when he doesn't need to, until, quite abruptly, he stops. He does not need the reminder that he is alone; especially not now that his loneliness is so much more severe now that he has lost both a wife and a daughter. 

He longs for Leah until his dying day. He longs for his own happiness - something that could make a day so much more than just bearable. He longs for a wife and a little girl who has him wrapped around her little finger. 

But we all must face the truth, and Shylock is forced to face his stark reality: 

He is alone. 


End file.
